ST. GEORGE — A St. George convenience store employee was arrested over the weekend for allegedly using his iPhone to film a teenage girl using the restroom — until the victim grabbed the suspect’s phone and called 911, according to police.
Lucas Antonio Gorgoglione, 20, was arrested and booked into Purgatory Correctional Facility facing a third-degree felony count of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of voyeurism by electronic equipment concealed or disguised.
The arrest stems from an incident reported at Maverik Adventure’s First Stop store at the intersection of South River Road and 1450 South in St. George when emergency dispatch received a call reporting a possible sexual offense.
According to charging documents filed with the courts, officers responded shortly after 5 p.m. Friday and spoke to a teen girl who reported that minutes earlier, she was using the restroom when she realized she was being recorded on a cellphone.
St. George Police Officer Tiffany Mitchell told St. George News the suspect placed the cellphone under the restroom stall, and he continued to hold the phone while allegedly taking video of the teen using the restroom. The victim grabbed the suspect’s phone and then called 911 for help.
The minor still had the suspect’s phone and was fearful the suspect was waiting for her to exit the bathroom stall, so she remained inside the restroom.
The teen told police that Gorgoglione allegedly was holding the phone under the dividing wall of the stall, towards the rear wall with the camera facing toward her. She grabbed the device and quickly deleted the video. She also said she had no idea who the man was but said he was possibly a white male who remained silent the entire time.
The cellphone used during the alleged incident was turned over to police.
Officers also spoke to the store manager who said the hallway near the restrooms is covered by security cameras. Officers viewed the footage, which showed the teen entering the women’s restroom at 5 p.m., and shortly thereafter, officers watched a white male approach the men’s restroom door, turn around and enter the woman’s restroom directly across from the men’s bathroom.
After a few minutes, the same man was seen exiting the women’s restroom and proceeding down the hallway. Officers also noticed the suspect was wearing jeans and a dark long-sleeved shirt that appeared to be the same uniform shirt worn by other store employees.
Additional footage showed the suspect in the hallway near the restrooms, “while appearing to be fulfilling his work duties, that included restocking the men’s restroom toiletries and other supplies.”
The report states the suspect was identified as Gorgoglione, and officers later confirmed he was an employee of the store. When the manager called the number listed for the employee, the cellphone that was recovered during the incident started to ring, which confirmed it belonged to the employee, according to police.
The suspect, who was scheduled to work until late Friday night, could neither be located during a search of the property nor was the red vehicle he was known to drive in the parking lot. Officers then suspected he had left work several hours before the end of his scheduled shift.
When officers responded to Gorgoglione’s residence, they asked the suspect to step outside so they could speak to him about the incident. Gorgoglione walked out of the home and told officers he would not answer any questions without an attorney present. He was then placed under arrest and then transported and booked into jail.
St. George News reached out to Maverik Adventure’s First Stop’s corporate headquarters in Salt Lake City, but the request for comment has gone unanswered as of the writing of this report.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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